The next meeting of the Parent Association was set for Wednesday, February 2 at 6:30pm, in the school multi-purpose room. Having it the same week as the Governing Council meeting turns out to be a lot to handle for people involved in that. So we'll try first Wednesdays instead.
The other general item mentioned at the meeting was Charter School Day in Santa Fe on Monday, February 14. This is a day when charter schools from around the state send a few classes, along with parent helpers, to the Roundhouse to meet with legislators and demonstrate what their schools are doing. Students also have an opportunity to serve as pages to legislators during the day, and learn how the NM legislature works. The more parents who can come along, the better.
Mary Nutt spoke about the history of the Core Knowledge (CK) curriculum that the school was chartered to use. It was developed in the early 1990's by a group at UVa, who then brought in hundreds of other teachers and subject experts to flesh it out, tested it in schools for a year or so, and then revised it. It gets tweaks every couple of years to keep it current. The key ideas are:
It is now widely implemented in US schools (public/private/charter/ homeschools). There were several questions about how well it is being implemented at our school, especially given that the NM state standards are not based on it (although of course there is overlap) and the schools are legally obligated to teach to those. During the last several months the teachers have been working to align the CK subjects with NM state requirements, with good progress that is emerging as year-long lesson plans. At the end of the year they will evaluate how much of the CK material was covered. Parents can get copies of a CK handbook for each grade from the CVCS library to learn more, including family-oriented supplemental activities.
One interesting point is that the NM standardized tests are given in March. So the teachers are planning to give more focus before then to the state requirements, and afterwards catch up on CK material they might have had to postpone.
CK does not include methods for teaching math or reading, so the school has adopted programs for those: Saxon for math (which is working very well) and Open Court for reading (which they are less happy with). The school just received a grant for reading-education materials, and Shelly Rice, who has a lot of experience with different programs, will be coming this afternoon to review them with the teachers so they can decide whether there is a better alternative. Mary Nutt also thinks that it's a bit weak on science; the NM state curriculum covers more there and our teachers supplement it as well.
It was pretty clear from the discussion that most parents are not receiving enough communication from teachers about the subjects being (or about to be) covered, along with changes to PE schedules, music, etc. Mary made a note that it would be useful if there were a simple template for each teacher to use every month as the basis for a brief report to parents; if they want to write more, they would not be constrained by it, but it would at least ensure a minimum flow of important information. The weekly newsletter is also a useful vehicle for general updates about school activities.
Jeanne Gacanich, who is the Governing Council president and chair of the school Facilities Committee, gave a quick overview of what we have now (~3 acres, buildings laid out to accommodate a number of easements/rights of way that run through the property). She has a proposed purchase agreement for CVCS to buy the property from the county (for $1) which she is optimistic will be signed next week, subject to attorney review. It doesn't place restrictions on how CVCS may use the property, although if we ultimately decide on some other location and don't use it at all, it may revert to the County.
Ownership of the property will open up more possibilities for grant funding for construction or renovation (yet to be decided which, and may depend on where the money comes from). There is also a former BLM building across the street that is of interest, and having both would give us lots of very good choices for permanent facilities. Also, a CVCS parent who's familiar with 501(c)(3) non-profit setup has volunteered to finish up the paperwork to create a "Friends of the Charter School" organization, which would be able to take out loans (which public schools cannot do) and accept donations from companies that can't/won't donate directly to public schools; so that will improve our options as well.
The facilities committee has a meeting Wednesday of next week (19th), 7pm at the school, which is open to interested parents. That afternoon there will be a guided tour of the old hospital building for parents to see what it's like inside; the plan is to meet at 3:15pm at the school. Flashlights and the like will be useful.